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JAPAN / Media
Jun 12, 2015

Times advisory board meets, offers recommendations

COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2015

Algorithms give us what we want, but little else

Algorithms may take the guesswork out of marketing, crime prevention and even romance. But they also take the guesswork out of life itself, making it predictably dull.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2015

Security bills' credibility hobbled by suspicious explanations and reporting: scholars

As the Diet continues debate over a raft of contentious bills that would upend Japan's postwar security regime, some scholars and experts are noting the need for at least some changes to the nation's defense posture considering the security climate in the region — and a more transparent approach to...
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2015

Legal doubts over security bills

The Abe administration must address key questions if it's serious about winning the public's support and understanding of its security legislation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 8, 2015

Sincere climate pledge or 'sleight of hand'?

Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet announced Japan would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2030, based on 2013 levels. The plan will be presented to delegates at a United Nations conference on climate change in Paris this December.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2015

Abe should heed Onaga's words

To avoid an all-out confrontation with Okinawa, the Abe administration needs to search in earnest for an alternative plan to building a new U.S. Marine base in Henoko.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 6, 2015

New interleague format divides opinion

We're already more than halfway through Japan's interleague season, and I overheard a member of the Japanese media say last week, "The interleague games are not interesting."
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 5, 2015

Experts' tongue-lashing rekindles Diet debate on reinterpreted Constitution

The surprise tongue-lashing in the Diet meted out by three noted constitutional scholars has reignited debate on whether the Cabinet's reinterpretation of Article 9 last year was legitimate.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 5, 2015

Relatives in China ship disaster say they were beaten by police

Relatives of passengers missing in the sinking of the Eastern Star cruise ship on the Yangtze River have accused Chinese police of beating them when they sought more information about the disaster.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 4, 2015

Some Japanese teens welcome move to reduce voting age, others apathetic

For high school student Aine Suzuki, the Lower House's move on Thursday to pass legislation that would reduce the voting age to 18 from the current 20 was akin to a dream come true.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2015

Russia cracks down again on NGOs

Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest crackdown on NGOs is just one more attempt to silence any opposition to his rule.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 4, 2015

Success of Doraemon film in China reflects thaw in ties with Japan: expert

The success of a Japanese animation film recently released in China reflects a thaw in relations between the two nations as Beijing opens up to cultural exchanges, according to a Japan-based expert on the communist country.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 3, 2015

Here's hoping the ikumen fad fades as Japan ages like fine sake

When the Japanese media started to harp on about the fatigue emerging among ikumen — men who help their wives with child-rearing and other domestic duties — I just had to laugh. Being a Japanese sake brewer's husband, I was confident that I was streets ahead of these trendy men bragging about their...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 2, 2015

An alliance of hope must include Okinawans

The disproportionate presence of American forces on Okinawa is at least in part the continuation of Tokyo's low regard for the island and its people.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015

Tayyipism strikes a chord with Turkish voters

President Recep Erdogan's new Turkey is more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2015

The AIIB key to Beijing's new economic order

China's approach to creating an infrastructure bank that will knit Asia into a Sino-centric economic order could prove to be a nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
May 31, 2015

U.S. greenlights Japan's march back to militarism

As I've often written, I'm a big proponent of the historical record — if for no other reason, so we can look back at the past and learn from our mistakes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2015

Islam takes center stage as Turkish election campaign enters final week

Evoking the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and vowing the Muslim call to prayer would forever ring out, President Tayyip Erdogan put religion at center stage on Saturday as campaigning for Turkey's parliamentary election entered its final week.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 30, 2015

The geopolitics of coping with a rising China

Last week I examined the logic and consequences of the "Abe Doctrine," whereby Japan has beefed up its alliance with the United States by agreeing to expand what it is prepared to do militarily in support of U.S. global security operations. This is not a settled issue domestically as few Japanese support...
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 29, 2015

Arsenal favored to give Wenger sixth F.A. Cup victory

Arsenal has already suffered one setback ahead of Saturday's F.A. Cup final against Aston Villa.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 29, 2015

Expressive emoji win over Merriam-Webster's wordsmiths

From tsunami to head honcho, English boasts no end to Japanese loan words. Artsy chefs now talk of umami and revelers belt out karaoke, so it is no surprise to see the Merriam-Webster dictionary honoring another new arrival: emoji, familiar to mobile users worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / They're Playing Our Song
May 29, 2015

The tune that allowed Japan to lament

The sympathy of Michiko Namiki's "Ringo no Uta," the first pop music hit after World War II finished, endeared it to a battered nation. Four months later in May of 1946, however, a very different tune became a No. 1 hit. Noboru Kirishima's "Reijin no Uta" ("Song of a Beautiful Woman") played up lament...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2015

Obama-sought fast-track trade bill, with caveats, looks poised to clear House vote

Republican and Democratic supporters of a fast-track trade bill are confident the U.S. House will pass the measure, sending it to President Barack Obama's desk, two House aides said.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2015

Reflation foes warn Kuroda, 'Abenomics' heading nation toward debt meltdown

Two years after unleashing record monetary stimulus, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda and his allies are confronting increasingly vocal opposition from the opponents of reflation who once dominated the policy debate.
JAPAN
May 27, 2015

Nuclear regulator clears two Sendai reactors for restart

Japan cleared the way on Wednesday for a resumption of nuclear power, four years after the world's worst atomic disaster in more than two decades led to the shutdown of all the country's reactors and fueled public opposition to the industry.
JAPAN
May 26, 2015

Government defies foes over Henoko, stays set on landfill for new base

The central government will press ahead with construction of the Futenma replacement base even if Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga revokes existing permission for landfill work at the site, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2015

Unpopular but defiant, Myanmar's ruling party unfazed about poll prospects

Myanmar's ruling party is led by former members of a military junta, evolved from an organization that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi once compared to a Nazi militia, and took office through electoral fraud.

Longform

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